NANCY DREW

GHOST DOGS OF MOON LAKE

based off the game by Her Interactive, 2002

novelized by mungojerry311, 2016

CHAPTER 1

Off To Moon Lake

Nancy Drew knew that traveling so far away from River Heights was an adventure in and of itself. She was able to assure herself, however, that she had recently solved the mystery of the Scarlet Hand in Washington, D. C. If she could solve that mystery, she thought, she could certainly solve this one.

The highway seemed like a long stretch of just trees on either side of the road with a hill every now and then to break the monotony. Nancy wouldn't normally make this long a drive under normal circumstances, but she was doing it for a dear friend of hers.

Sally McDonald had been a photographer friend of the Drew family back in River Heights. She had taken every family photo that Nancy could remember. She was the only reason why Nancy even remembered what her mother looked like.

Sally had recently decided to move to the East Coast in hopes of advancing her career. She had decided to buy a house on the shore of beautiful Moon Lake in southern Pennsylvania. The house had once been owned by a 1920s gangster named Mickey Malone. Having been unoccupied for close to 75 years, the house was a major fixer upper. From the letters that Sally sent back home, she seemed to be very happy in her "new" home.

That all the changed the previous day. Nancy was doing her summer reading in her bedroom. Suddenly the phone in her room rang. Not knowing who it was, she picked it up.

"Hello?" Nancy spoke into the phone.

"Hey Nancy, it's Sally McDonald!" said the other voice on the line.

"Hi Sally, how's it going at Moon Lake?" Nancy asked.

"Not well, definitely not well." Sally replied, sounding somewhat afraid.

"What's wrong?" Nancy asked, concerned.

"I can't tell you right now." Sally almost screamed into the phone. "I just need you to come to Moon Lake!"

"But Sally" Nancy answered "Moon Lake is about four states away from me and..."

"I don't care!" Sally cried. "Just come over here! I gave your dad directions on how to get here, you can use those. Goodbye!"

"But..." Nancy tried to object but Sally had already hung up. She thought for several minutes on whether to go to Moon Lake or not. It was a long drive away, but she would never turn down helping a friend.

That night at dinner, Nancy decided to tell her father, Carson, about it.

"Dad", Nancy began, "Sally McDonald called this afternoon."

"Oh really?" Carson responded, intrigued. "What did she want?"

"She really didn't say" Nancy answered. "She sounded like she was afraid of something out there."

Carson chuckled. "That Sally McDonald. I warned her there would be lots of spiders in the forest, but like she always does, she never listened to me."

"It wasn't about that. She wouldn't say what was wrong, but it must be very bad." Nancy then decided to tell her dad the news. "She needs me to go to Moon Lake to help her with whatever is scaring her out there.

Carson nearly spit up his coffee, but quickly regained his composure. "Sally's going to have you drive out to Moon lake by yourself? That lady must be desperate."

"Sure sounded like it." Nancy said.

Carson put his hand on Nancy's shoulder. "You know, sometimes I wonder whether it was a good idea to let you take on all those cases. But I must remind myself that you are a big girl now and you can handle it. I suggest you get ready for bed."

"Good idea Dad" Nancy replied as she got up from the table. Suddenly she remembered what Sally had told her. "Dad, Sally said that she gave you directions to Moon Lake, and that I could use those."

"Oh yes!" Carson answered. He reached into the pocket of his shirt and handed Nancy a piece of yellow notebook paper. "I wrote down the directions on that paper. They should be easy enough to follow. By the way, how long do you think you'll be out there?"

"I don't know Dad" Nancy answered. "I'm planning to be gone at least a week. I'll pack my things before I go to bed."

"Good idea" Carson replied. "I'll have to leave for work early tomorrow, so I'll probably be gone by the time you get up."

"Thanks" Nancy said as she went up the stairs to her room.

Now, as Nancy drove along the highway looking for the Moon Lake exit, she wondered if she was right in wanting to help Sally. Nancy once again assured herself that Sally would have done the same thing for her.

Eventually, she saw the highway sign for Moon Lake and took the exit when it came up. The exit took her to a road that wasn't much different than the highway she just got off of, except that it had two lanes in either direction. At this time, the sun was just about to set. Nancy kept looking at the directions her father had given her.

The directions took her on windy roads which seemed almost deserted. It seemed like an eternity before she met another car. Nancy finally came upon the old wooden gate which marked the path toward the Malone house. She turned down it and managed to stay on the rather overgrown path.

The path ended in a clearing. In the early sunset she could see the Malone house and, beyond it, Moon Lake.

Nancy parked her car near the path so she could leave more easily when she had helped Sally with whatever was scaring her.

As she got out of her car and closed the door, Nancy thought she felt a chill in the mid-summer air. Could this be a sign that she was about to undertake the most dangerous case she had solved to this point?

COMING NEXT: The First Night At Sally's